Lawyers Accuse ChatGPT of Tricking Them into Citing False Case Law

Two lawyers, Steven A. Schwartz and Peter LoDuca, are facing possible repercussions after they unknowingly cited fictitious legal research in a court filing. The lawyers were working on a case against the Colombian airline Avianca for a 2019 injury incurred during a flight and used an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot called ChatGPT to help find legal proofs. The chatbot suggested several cases involving aviation mishaps that Schwartz had not been able to find through usual methods. The problem was, several of those cases were fake or involved airlines that did not exist. When Avianca and the court pointed out the bogus case law in a March filing, the judge confronted Schwartz with one legal case invented by the computer program and asked him if he had anything to say. I would like to sincerely apologize, Schwartz said.